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Smoke on the Water

The last time I wrote was quite a while ago, the skies were blue for the promise of Sculpture by the Sea next week. This morning when I took my puppy for a walk around the lakes edge I couldn’t see the mountains. Thick smoke hanging on the water, the result surrounding bush fires from the south, north and west. Tragically almost 200 homes have been lost in the last couple of days and it’s not summer yet. This photo shows the clouds hanging heavy over Sydney. I wanted to share some images from one of my books, Fireworks by Gavin Wilson.

I recently blogged about John Peart, a wonderful Australian abstractionist who reportedly lost his life to smoke inhalation just recently in a harsh but beautiful landscape that he painted so well. In the same area of Wedderburn, Elisabeth Cummings lost her studio to bush fires and painted this work Wedderburn After the Fire described as a “defiant act of creation admits the embers of despair” by author Gavin Wilson.

Darren Pateman The Ashes 2002

Jon Cattapan’s work From the Shoalhaven Fires 2003 reminded me of the same fires that had us marooned on the waters edge, watching “Elvis” the giant water-giving helicopter dipping and dousing. It was Xmas day and we were without power for three weeks, listening to the radio and collecting ice from brave fisherman that would cross the fire lines. We played cards, talked with neighbours and drank mostly warm beer by the water. We were lucky.